DENHAM Eleanor Ruth – Trained Nurse/Sister/Matron

Eleanor Denham was born on 15th October 1868 in Halifax, Yorkshire. She was the 2nd daughter and child of Charles Horsfall Denham and Sarah Elizabeth Denham (nee Crook). Charles was born c1841, he died in 1912. Sarah was born in 1840 and died in 1935. The couple had 9 children, all born in Halifax: Sarah Elizabeth b1866, Eleanor Ruth b1868 Charles Thomas b1870 Roland Lewis b1871 Norman b1873 (father of actor Maurice Denham) Kathleen Denham c1875 Kathleen b 1877 Winifred b1878 Lawrence b1880. Charles had been a director of the original Halifax Building Society having sold his stone and marble business in 1873. The couple moved from Yorkshire to Croydon after he was convicted and sentenced at Leeds Assizes to 12 months hard labour for publishing false balance sheets, whereby the company’s shareholders lost around £40,000.

By 1891 Eleanor aged 23 was living with the 82 year old grandmother, Sarah Crook, at Seaford, Sussex. In 1901 she was still resident in Seaford with Sarah, now aged 92. Eleanor is recorded as a Hospital Nurse.

British Journal of Nursing, 7th November 1914 National Union of Trained Nurses – The nurses who will be working with the Society of Friends under the auspices of the “Association des Infirmieres Visiteuses de France” are:- …..Miss Denham

British Journal of Nursing, 29th January 1916 Appointed through the National Union of Trained Nurses Miss Denham Exeter VAD Hospital.

Eleanor Denham never married. She died in Sussex in early 1953, aged 85.